Buch lesen: «Imperfect Stranger»

CHAPTER ONE

‘THERE are two seasons in the rainforest, the wet season and the wetter season,’ the tour guide said, as the cable ferry started off on its unhurried journey across the brown sun-gilded waters of the Daintree River. He chuckled at his own joke, then continued, ‘And, this being November, the wetter season’s about to start. Or, at least, it should be.’ Squinting up from beneath the brim of his bushranger hat, the young Australian surveyed the cloudless azure sky. ‘But it’s two years since the last prolonged spell of heavy rain and…’

As he launched into a soliloquy on the dangers which a continued drought would pose, Danielle’s concentration began to flicker and her eyes went beyond him, wandering idly over the small ferry and the people who had left the other ten or so vehicles to stand in the sunshine. Abruptly her gaze stopped. Focused. At the front of the boat, a tall, thirty-something man in sunglasses was leaning against a battered, dust-caked jeep. His arms were folded across his chest and he was looking pensively out along the river. With blue-black stubble which said he could not have shaved for the past two days, glossy dark hair curling over his collar, and clad in a navy polo shirt, well-worn jeans and scuffed desert boots, the man looked hard-bodied, strong, tough. Danielle’s pulse-rate broke into an involuntary canter. He oozed testosterone.

Riveted by his presence and by the command he had of his own quiet space, she assessed him intently and thoroughly. With high cheekbones, broad brow and a full sculpted mouth, he promised to be, not Greek-god handsome—a beaky shark’s fin of a nose excluded that—but an arresting-looking man. If only he would remove those dark glasses and allow her to see his eyes. A minute or two later, when he lifted a long-fingered hand, Danielle gazed at him in surprise. Her wish was about to be granted? Well, thank you, kind sir. But instead he swiped back the untidy swath of jet-black hair which fell over his brow and then, as if sensing himself under inspection, turned his head to look along the length of the ferry and fix his gaze pointedly on her.

Danielle swallowed. She felt the heat seep into her cheeks. His eyes might be masked, but the almost insolent shifting of the man’s stance—muscled arms leisurely refolded, long legs spread a little wider apartmade it clear that the look which emanated from behind the dark glasses was cool and direct and challenging. He knew she had been staring. Her brow puckered. After just one day in the balmy heat of Northern Queensland, she appeared to be going troppo! She was not in the habit of ogling strange men. On the contrary, strange men usually ogled her. In any case, rough diamonds were not her type; she preferred cultured, civilised, wellgroomed males.

Deciding that the best way to rescue herself from her embarrassment—and to make amends—would be to shine a quick smile, receive one in return, then turn away, Danielle wiggled the corners of her mouth. A moment of time ticked by, and another, but the man remained straight-faced. Her smile collapsed. Danielle felt flustered. When she smiled at members of the opposite sex she invariably elicited an identical—and a delighted—response, but the continued coolness of his stare made it plain that on this occasion she had misjudged and the recipient was not in the market for seduction. Her charm offensive had received the big chill.

Standing taller, Danielle gazed defiantly back. She was an independent, sophisticated and poised young woman, she told herself, and she refused to be flustered by some graceless hick. She refused to turn away. She refused to draw down her own sunglasses, which had been pushed on to the top of her blonde head, no matter how tempting it might be. She had been looking at him, but so what? As the saying went, a cat could look at a king or, more aptly in this case, a lady could look at a tramp, Danielle thought caustically. She was breaking no rules, committing no crime. Besides, for all he knew, he could have simply reminded her of someone.

Her chin lifted, Danielle stared into the impenetrable black depths of the man’s lenses. He had become an adversary and this was a battle, one which she intended to win. She would not be browbeaten. After what felt like ten minutes, but which common sense insisted could be no more than thirty seconds, doubts began to creep in. Why had she embarked on such a fatuous and juvenile course of action? Just what was she proving? She might be in a rebellious mood this morning, but to engage in optical warfare with a stranger ranked as bloodymindedness gone berserk. Danielle was desperately wondering how she could back off and keep some shred of dignity intact when her adversary straightened and, with an air of becoming bored with a pesky child, swung open the door of his jeep to vault athletically inside. As the door clanged shut behind him, Danielle balled her fists. He might have made an exit, yet it was she who had been dismissed

‘So, although you wouldn’t want it to rain while you’re here, the region is in dire need of water,’ she became aware of her companion saying beside her.

Danielle snapped back to attention. ‘Oh…yes,’ she replied brightly.

When she had drawn up at the tail-end of the queue of vehicles waiting to board the ferry, she had parked behind a minibus filled with Japanese holiday makers off on a day’s safari. As she had got out of the Land Rover to stretch her legs, so the driver had jumped out too, and started to talk. And once on the ferry, Phil—he had amiably introduced himself—had made a beeline for her and chatted again. Danielle shone him a dazzling smile. This fresh-faced young man would never be so impolite, nor so arrogant, as to give her the brush-off—unlike some, she thought darkly.

‘Which place are you booked into?’ Phil enquired, pushing his hands into the pockets of the khaki shorts which, with a khaki shirt and the badged hat, comprised his tour guide uniform.

‘The Fan Palms Lodge,’ she replied.

‘The accommodation’s a bit basic, but the staff are real matey. You’ll like it there,’ he declared.

‘I hope so,’ Danielle said.

A secretary at the newspaper she worked for had fixed the reservation, so all she knew was that the hotel featured wooden bungalows set amongst trees and was located several miles from the coast. But what did ‘a bit basic’ mean? she wondered, and felt a flutter of apprehension. Maybe it would be advisable not to ask.

‘You’ve got around a couple of hours’ drive through the rainforest,’ Phil went on. ‘Still, since last year all of the road to the Lodge has been sealed, so it’s easy travelling.’

Danielle cast a glance behind her at the hired Land Rover. ‘Good. What kind of people live in the rainforest?’ she enquired, deciding that this was an opportunity to start gathering a few snippets of local information.

Phil eased his hat back from his brow and grinned. There were times when the tourists’ endless questions bored him rigid, but he would be happy to talk to this girl on any subject she desired for hours. She was a beaut. Thick, shoulder-length corn-coloured hair which swung in a polished curtain when she moved, huge dark blue eyes, a dimpled smile. His gaze fell. And as for that body in the white and yellow striped top and short white skirt, and those deliciously long legs…

‘Well, obviously some folk are here because of the tourist trade: guys like me, motel employees and such,’ he said, dragging his thoughts back to a more mundane level, ‘but so far as residents go you get the odd writer, naturalist, film-maker, a painter or two.’

Danielle had decided that from now on the jeep and its occupant would be ignored, yet as Phil had spoken her gaze had slid in its direction. The driver’s window was wound down and she could see the man’s shoulder and his arm resting casually along the lower edge. His arm was firm-muscled and powerful, sprinkled with dark hairs which glinted in the sunshine. It reminded her of the kind of arm which, in days of old, would have brandished a cutlass or controlled the reins of a fast-galloping steed.

‘Painters?’ she muttered. ‘That’s interesting.’

‘There’re also some pretty weird types,’ Phil continued.

The man flexed his hand, drawing her gaze to his fingers. They were long, blunt-tipped fingers which promised to be competent and confident in whatever they did, whether it was planing wood or easing a hook from a fish or stroking a woman. Danielle hastily switched her gaze and her attention—her full attention-back her companion. One glimpse of an arm and she was winging off into flights of fantasy? She must be going troppo.

‘Weird?’ she queried.

‘Like hippies, down-and-outs, drop-outs. What we call the feral people.’

‘Why feral?’ Danielle asked curiously.

‘Because they exist on their dole cheques and go kind of wild. North of the Daintree is a great place for disappearing into and it’s reckoned that folk often come here because they’ve got a story in their background or they’re running away from something. Better get ready to go,’ Phil declared, with a nod at the concrete ramp on the riverbank which they were approaching and the ferryman who waited there. ‘Have a great stay and—’ he lifted hopeful brows ‘—who knows, we could meet again.’

‘Perhaps,’ she said, being deliberately vague, for liaisons, no matter how fleeting, were of no interest. She turned towards her Land Rover. “Bye.’

When the ferry docked a few minutes later, the dustcovered jeep was first off. As it accelerated up on to the road and disappeared into the thick wedge of trees, Danielle’s brow furrowed. His unshaven state and ramshackle vehicle indicated that the man was not a holiday maker, so could he be one of the drop-outs whom Phil had mentioned? It was possible, and yet she had perceived an inner steel and a sense of energy about him. As for being a down-and-out, that did not exactly fit either because his sunglasses had almost certainly been an expensive pair of latest model Ray-Bans. Danielle tapped out an impatient staccato on the steering-wheel. Forget theorising, she ordered herself. Forget Mr Macho. She had. She had. He might be one of the most physically compelling males she had ever seen, but she was damned if she would allow him to become mentally compelling too.

One by one the vehicles disembarked from the ferry, with Danielle bringing up the rear. Ahead, Phil tooted his horn in a cheery farewell and, as she gave an answering blast, the Land Rover’s engine cut out By the time she had managed to re-start it, she was alone.

North of the river the road was narrow, shaded by a spreading green canopy of gigantic trees, among which grew lush ferns, looping, twisting creepers and a myriad palms. At first, Danielle concentrated on driving and the possibility of oncoming traffic suddenly speeding at her from around the bends, but after a few miles when all she met was a single car, she settled down. Now there was time to think, and now she brooded on the reason for her rebellious mood—the pointlessness of her journey.

Danielle scowled. She had been despatched on what could be transparently and insultingly recognised as a wild-goose chase. Back in London, when she had been offered a three-month assignment working for The Hour, an Australian sister newspaper, she had jumped at the chance, but she had never imagined that a mere fortnight after arriving she would find herself deep in the remote, rural mañana world of tropical Queensland. Her fingers tightened around the steering-wheel. It was not fair. As an experienced political reporter—a damn good one, Danielle thought belligerently—her supposed role had been to add a more international flavour to The Hour’s political columns, but had Clive Bredhauer, the editor, acknowledged her skills and made use of them? No. Instead, on the day before she was to conduct her first interview with an Australian government minister, he had summoned her into his office, spouted some halfbaked tale about rumours of the clandestine growing of marijuana up north and ordered her to investigate. Like now. And no protests, please, poppet. So she had been forced to pass over the interview to a male windbag of a journalist with a noxious line in blue jokes, and fly more than fifteen hundred miles to what was called the Wilderness Coast. Wilderness! Danielle’s lip curled in disgust. She did not appreciate being banished to the back of beyond; she wanted to be in Melbourne where things happened. She ought to be there. She deserved to be there. It was her right to be there.

‘The last seizure of marijuana was over two years ago,’ the officer in charge had told her, when she had dutifully visited the local police station that morning. ‘Whispers of further stashes have floated around here ever since, but we’ve yet to find a single piece of evidence.’

Danielle’s dark blue eyes glittered. The obvious assumption was that harvesting of the drug had ceased, though if by some exceedingly long shot it had continued, any resultant story would not be political. The truth was that the editor had been getting rid of her, she thought resentfully. Ignoring her track record and the commendations which had accompanied her from London, he had decided that, because she was young, blonde and female, she lacked the gravitas to handle serious interviews. But his decision had been wrong.

‘Take your time looking into the story, poppet,’ the goatee-bearded Clive Bredhauer had said, with a benevolent smile. ‘Take up to three weeks if necessary.’

Danielle pushed a wing of glossy fair hair back behind one ear. As the editor had been so determined to get rid of her, ‘poppet’ had a good mind to do as he suggested and stay here for three weeks. That would show him! Her professionalism demanded that the first week must be devoted to making enquiries—futile ones, she thought acidly—but the subsequent fortnight could be more relaxed. Looking out through the windscreen at the lavish sun-dappled foliage, Danielle wrinkled her nose. For all its natural beauty, a World Heritage national park would not be her choice of holiday venue—she preferred more activity—but, if nothing else, she could get up late, swim a little, soak up the sun. After all, as James was constantly complaining, she dedicated far too much of her time and her energy to work.

James. Danielle’s expression became pensive. Her boyfriend had been one of the reasons—perhaps the reason—why she had accepted the Australian assignment with such alacrity. It had enabled her to get away, put space between them, and start to consider calmly and logically…

The rumbling of her stomach brought an end to her reverie. She was hungry. Peering at the watch strapped to her slim wrist, Danielle saw that it had gone one o’clock. The Port Douglas motel where she had stayed last night had provided a picnic lunch and it was high time she stopped to eat it. But where? On occasions the road had snaked close to the coast to give views of a spectacularly turquoise-blue sea and palm-fringed shores, though now it had curved inland back into the jungle. Should she wait in the hope of returning to the ocean and picnicking on a beach, yet how far on would that be?

A glimpse through the trees of water flowing over rocks thrust Danielle into snap decision. She would eat here, now. Off ahead a dirt track conveniently led down and, as she drew level, she swung abruptly on to it. Too abruptly, for the track proved to be a hard-baked, deceptively steep slope of peaks and deep ruts and the Land Rover rode them like a bucking bronco. Bounced violently up and down, airborne one second and her backside slamming hard on to the seat the next, Danielle made a desperate stab for the brake but stamped on the clutch instead.

‘Aarrghh!’ she screeched in alarm, as the vehicle shot forward in gathering, freewheeling speed.

Simultaneously struggling to steer and find the elusive pedal, she careered down the track like a cross-country rallyer gone mad. As the Land Rover hit a bonecrunching width of grey stones which edged the stream, Danielle caught sight of a movement, a blur, in the corner of her eye, but the next second she was charging into the water and, at last, her foot made contact with the brake.

With a protesting shriek of bodywork and a jolt the Land Rover halted; halted in the middle of what had once been a sizeable creek, but which was now, due to the lack of rain, reduced to a mercifully shallow stream. Her fingers shaking, Danielle switched off the ignition. For a moment her only awareness was of the frantic pounding of her heart and the ripple of the water, then she remembered that blur. It had been a figure, dangerously close to the vehicle. She went hot and cold. Gooseflesh prickled her skin. Had she hit whoever it was? Had she hurt them? Fractured their arms, legs, spine—killed them?

Scrabbling at the handle, Danielle wound down her window to lean out and peer fearfully back. Her brows soared. On the edge of the stream stood the tall, dark arrogant stranger from the ferry. Earlier she could willingly have throttled him, but now relief rushed over her. He was all in one piece.